


What The Heart Desires

by SparklingDuckling



Series: Loki x Reader OneShots [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alien Planet, Asgard, Crushes, Cute, De-aged Loki (Marvel), Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Making Out, Mermaids, POV Loki (Marvel), POV Second Person, Secret Crush, Shapeshifting, Teen Crush, Teen Romance, Teen!Loki, Teen!Thor, space, switching POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 05:50:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17823080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparklingDuckling/pseuds/SparklingDuckling
Summary: Thor, Loki, Lady Sif, the Warrior Three and you go on a mission to another planet. This planet is inhabited by mermaids who take the form of the person someone desires most to lure them to their deaths. Loki is unfortunate enough to fall victim to one of the creatures but the form the mermaid takes to seduce him surprises you all.(This oneshot was inspired by an Imagine I found on Tumblr)





	What The Heart Desires

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so, I imagined this to take place Pre-Thor (2011) and I imagined Loki and Thor to still be pretty young. Maybe even still in their teenage years or shortly after. Oh and btw, at some point everyone is like half naked but believe me I don’t know how that happened either.

(Y/N)'s POV

The sound of metal grinding against stone wasn't something most people would describe as calming. The heavy breaths of the sword in your hands as it got sharper and neater with every drag across the stone. For you it was the most calming sound in the nine realms. It was consistent, smooth, beautiful.

It was rare for a girl to be a blacksmith but you couldn't imagine doing anything else. You fell in love with the anvil the day you saw it for the first time in your father's workshop. Your father was one of the most famous blacksmiths in all of Asgard. Nobody was able to produce weapons with such grace, such stability and balance. Nobody – except for you.

When you were younger people would often joke that you were secretly half dwarf and that's why you were so skilled in producing weapons. But as you got older (and prettier) they quickly stopped this kind of comparison. But you weren't just a talented young blacksmith you were also quite gifted in using the weapons that you made, your favorite being by far the sword.

One day you were training behind your father's workshop when someone suddenly called behind you, “Do you mind a training partner?”

You turned around to see Lady Sif, a regular at your father's forge and with the time you had become good friends.

“Sure!” you called back. “If you think you can catch up with me.” She smiled and made a couple of steps towards you when suddenly she pulled her own sword out of seemingly thin air. But you were faster and quickly parried her blade with your own.

“Surprise attack?” you asked. “Come on Sif, you're better than that!”

“I only just begun!”

The two of you were dancing across the field. The only sounds being your heavy breaths and the clinking of your swords in the air. For some time it looked like Sif was coming out on top. It was no secret that she was the stronger warrior out of the two of you. But you had more stamina. All you had to do was make her tired to win.

It was exhausting and difficult to block all of her blows but you managed to do it! And soon enough you sensed that her strength was leaving her. Now was your time to attack and with some well-aimed blows you brought her down, taking her sword off of her.

“Not bad,” Sif complimented. “But don't think I don't know what you just did there. Tiring me out, what an uncreative move!”

“But it worked, didn't it?” you said smiling triumphantly at her and reached out a hand to help her up. She took it but instead of pulling herself up she pulled you down to her level, laughing loudly when you were landing next to her with your face in the grass.

“Hey! That was an uncreative move!”

“But it worked, didn't it?”

You two were laughing along with each other. Soon you decided to get up and get something to drink. You were nibbling on your cup of water when Sif suddenly asked you a suspicious question.

“Do you think you'll ever come to one of our missions again?”

In the past you had tagged along some of her missions with the Warrior Three, Thor and Loki but – how could one describe this – they never turned out quite the way you had expected. And for the most part that was due to Loki's shenanigans.

“I'm not sure,” you answered. “You know how all the other missions turned out. I don't want to experience something like that again. Remember that one time Loki transformed me into a pig?”

Sif tried to hide her smile but failed miserably. “Yes, I do. But come on, (y/n)! I'll be stuck with five guys on an mostly uninhabited planet for the nornes know how long! All that testosterone will drive me crazy!”

You gave her a sly smile. “Oh, will it?”

“You know how I meant that!” Sif said quickly. You shook off the mischief in your mind and rolled your eyes. “Will Loki be there?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You know he hates me!” you said. “All the other missions before he either made his jokes about me or actively put me in danger just for his entertainment.”

“Don't worry about Loki. He's a trickster. I'll be there to take care of you!”

“You were there the last times too,” you reminded her.

“Yeah, but I wasn't actively looking out for you back then. This time it will be different. I promise.” She looked at you with honest pleading eyes. You sighed.

“You won't give up until I say yes, won't you?”

Sif just shrugged and took another sip of her water. “You know how stubborn I can be.”

“Unfortunately you are right,” you a said in defeat. “Fine, I'll come with you.”

***

(Y/N)'s POV

Just a couple of days later the mission was supposed to start. Heimdall would send you with the bifrost to the planet of _Kamir;_ a planet completely covered in thick jungle with very few lakes in between as the only from of on the surface accessible water source on the whole planet. Apparently grew on this planet a very special flower that could grant the person who eats it immense power. Your mission was it to find and destroy the plant because Odin had decided that it was better to get rid of it than take the risk of any enemies finding it. The flower was still very small and not big enough for harvesting which was why now was the only possible time to destroy it once and for all before it was too late.

“Are you ready?” asked Sif and bumped you with her elbow. “Heimdall said that Kamir has really high temperatures so you better not wear too many layers.”

“Yeah I know,” you said and put on your sword belt. You looked over at Sif who was wearing her full battle armor and frowned.

“Not taking your own advice?”

“I'm rather safe than sorry,” she said with a shrug.

“Safe?” you asked, suddenly insecure. “I thought the planet was uninhabited?”

“Mostly,” she corrected. “Some creatures live there but they aren't really far developed. They are savage creatures without language or any other sign of intelligent life. Basically beasts. And I don't know about you but beasts attack and I don't plan on just letting them attack me.”

“That is a good argument,” you said and put on a vest made out of thick leather. Very hard to rip with teeth or inferior weapons.

After you had collected all your stuff the both of you rode on horses to the place where all of you had decided to meet up. Thor and Loki were already there waiting.

Thor was greeting you with a smile, Mjolnir in his hand. Loki on the other hand looked exactly how you felt. Not very excited and a little grumpy. His arms were crossed and he stood with his body turned slightly away from your small group.

“Perfect, you are already here,” said Thor. He nodded respectfully in your direction. “Lady (y/n), I'm thankful that you will be joining us. We can use a good fighter like you.”

You smiled at him. “Why, thank you Thor. I'm glad to be here.” ...kinda, you added in your mind with a look at Loki.

You actually didn't know why he hated you so much. When you first got introduced the two of you got along quite well. You had a similar sense of humor (although you drew the line at putting people in danger, unlike him) and you enjoyed his presence. But then on your first mission that took longer than just a quick trip he started acting differently and made no secret out of his dislike for you. But you wouldn't let his change in behavior bring you down. Two could play this game.

Thor and Loki climbed on their horses to be on eye level with you and Sif.

“Do we already know where on the planet this goddamn plant is growing?”she asked.

“Not really,” said Loki coldly. “Heimdall said, that they were able to limit it's location to a 1000 meter radius but within that we have no idea where it is. If we're lucky we find it immediately. And if not we could be stuck on there for days.” He gave you a dirty look, like it was suddenly your fault that they didn't know where the plant was exactly growing. But you were used to this behavior and although it annoyed the hell out of you, you were able to ignore it with an eye roll.

Just a couple of moments later that were filled with Thor and Sif discussing strategies and Loki glaring daggers at you the other three arrived.

“I'm sorry that we are late,” said Fandral. “But _someone_ just had to pack half of Asgards food supply.”

“You made me responsible for the meals. I'm taking my job seriously!” Volstagg replied in his defense. Thor and Lady Sif laughed at their friends and even Loki couldn't suppress a small smile.

Fandral spotted you and came over with his horse. “Lady (y/n), such a pleasure to have you with us today.” He took your hand and placed a tender kiss on the back of it. Your cheeks flushed a little red. Loki sighed annoyed. “Can we finally go? I wasn't planing on waiting here until the flower finds itself.”

Yikes.

“Let's better not keep the princess waiting any longer, shall we?” you said smugly and rode past Loki. All you heard from his was a gasp and something he mumbled under his breath, that made Thor shout a scandalized, “Loki! That's not how you talk about a lady!”

“Stop treating me like a child!”

“Stop acting like one!” Thor massaged the root of his nose and sighed. “Oh brother, what have we become that _I'm_ the voice of reason?”

The Warrior Three and Lady Sif snickered about the brothers while you were all making your way across the rainbow bridge towards Heimdall's observatory.

“You are late,” he said upon their arrival. He was standing in front of the entrance, his face stoic and not showing any bits of what he was thinking, or seeing.

“Yeah, apologies, Volstagg was-”

“I know,” he interrupted Fandral's excuse. “Now come, we need to hurry.”

They all got off their horses and followed Heimdall into the observatory. “Alright, I hope you all prepared accordingly. It will be hot so don't wear or carry too much! Only take the absolute necessary! But make sure that you take as much water with you as possible! It won't be easy to access on Kamir.”

“What? I thought there were big lakes?” asked Sif. “Why can't we just refill our water there?”

“You can't trust the lakes,” Heimdall said sternly. “They are cursed. They're full of loreley.”

Sif immediately understood but you were still confused.

“Loreley?” you asked.

“Water spirits. Mermaids,” Sif explained. “They are capable of telepathy and can see your deepest darkest desires, some you might not even be aware of yourself. Then they shape-shift into them to lure you into their arms so that they can pull you into your wet death.” You nodded, finally understanding.

Loki clicked with his tongue. “She doesn't know anything. She will only hold us up.”

“Loki,” warned Sif sharp. “If I hear another stupid comment from you I'll make sure you'll be the one staying behind. Her knowledge of natural materials and combat will be a lot more useful than your stupid magic tricks!” And with that Sif actually managed it to make Loki shut up.

They all walked over to get ready for Heimdall to open the bifrost. Heimdall himself walked over to his pedestal, his sword in his hands.

“Good luck,” he said before ramming his sword down and opening the streaming energy with it. And in the next moment the companions got sucked into its force, traveling the great distance from Asgard to Kamir.

But something must've gone wrong because instead of landing all standing up looking like the warriors you were you all just landed awkwardly on top of each other.

“Volstagg, get off of me!” screamed Sif.

“That's not me!” Volstagg called back.

“Argh! That was my face!” said Hogun.

Thor sucked in a sharp breath. “You just kneed me in the nuts!”

“In Odin's name, I'm so sorry!” apologized Sif quickly.

A jerk went through the pile of warriors and all you knew was that in the next second you were face to face with Loki, who grunted from the impact your body had on his when you fell on top of him. You were in shock. Your rip cage hurt and your faces were so close that your nose almost touched his. You could feel his heavy breath on your face. Too mesmerized by the sudden close body contact you weren't able to move. And when Loki noticed that you weren't doing anything to stand up, he rolled his eyes and pushed you roughly off of his body.

“Ouch!” you exclaimed when your head hit the ground. Your hand flew up to your head and luckily you didn't feel any blood but you were for sure left with a bump.

Loki was already standing. He dusted off his clothes and looked down at you with a raised eyebrow before walking over to his brother to help him get up.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine,” said Thor still in pain. “In maybe one or two days.”

“I said, I am sorry!” said Sif. “Stop being such a drama queen.”

All seven of you got up on your feet again and for the first time you could actually take a look at your surroundings without someone's body part in your face.

You guys were on a small clearing withing a big forest. The trees were as high as buildings and their interlacing branches were building a roof above your heads. That made it hard for the sun to come completely through to the ground where you were standing on and it was kind of dark for the middle of the day. But the probably weirdest thing was the heat. You'd think in the shadow of all those leafs it would be a little colder than in the sunlight but that wasn't the case. It was just as hot and you already started sweating. The air was humid and every breath felt like your were sucking in water in addition to oxygen.

“Where are we?” you asked, breathless from the beautiful plants around you.

“On Kamir obviously, what did you think?” Loki answered matter-of-factly.

“I know that,” you mumbled but kept your gaze down, your cheeks burning. Who did he think he was? Just because he was Asgard's prince he didn't have permission to constantly make you feel like a stupid peasant.

“Do we know what the flower looks like?” asked Fandral and took a look at his surroundings. “Because I see a lot of flowers growing here.” he was right. The ground was covered in all types of different plants from colorful blooming petals to dark green fern.

“Father said it would be glowing purple with blue spots and dark red stems,” said Thor. “But it should still be rather small so we won't find it easily.”

“Great, sounds like a party,” replied Fendral sarcastically.

“We don't have time for sarcasm right now,” you said already irritated by the heat. “We should just start searching.”

And so you did. The seven of you were walking for hours. Sweat was running down your face and neck, Sif – who normally always looked well put together – started to look disorganized and even Loki's pale cheeks were covered with a cherry pink color. It wasn't even close to dusk when the group was saying that they needed a break.

“Okay alright, we gonna take a break here,” said Thor and sunk to the ground. Everyone was pulling out their water bottles and you were all drinking big gulps of your water.

“Don't forget what Heimdall said,” reminded Hogun as the voice of reason. “We can't trust the water on here so we should save ours. We don't know for how long we'll be here.”

“Why can't we just go back to Asgard and bring new water if ours is out?” asked Volstagg.

“Isn't it obvious?” said Loki. “If we go back now the flower will be without protection. As soon as we are gone our enemies will rip each other apart to get here first.”

“But if they rip each other apart, isn't that a good thing? I mean, then we won't have to do it?” joked Volstagg.

Suddenly Thor got up and started taking off his armor.

“Uhm, Thor, what are you doing?” you asked as you watched him take off one layer after another.

“Hogun is right,” he said. “We need to save water and the more we sweat the more we'll need to drink. We should do what Heimdall said and leave everything we don't need behind.” He took off his shirt and was left standing there with just his trousers and Mjolnir in his hand.

Sif stared at Thor for a second longer before she just shrugged and started to take her own armor off. Following her example the others undressed as well.

You were a little uncomfortable at first but you thought about the alternative of dying of thirst and decided that it would be worth it. In the end you were left standing in some thin pants, a tank top and your sword belt. You felt the tickling of a pair of eyes on your skin and you looked up.

Loki was standing as far away from you as possible but his eyes were fixed on your figure. He himself was only wearing his thin trousers and a simple linen shirt, that stuck to his body from his sweat. You raised an eyebrow. “Everything okay?”

His eyes flew up to yours. His mouth closed and opened like the mouth of a fish but no sound came out. He quickly averted his gaze and walked away. Weird, you thought.

After everyone had taken off some layers you all felt a lot better and decided to continue with your search. You searched the whole day but without any success. The flower was not to be found.

When the sun was finally setting you were all happy to notice that the air was cooling down.

“I think we should rest now and get up early so that we can continue searching when it's still dark and cool,” suggested Sif and you all agreed. You quickly found a clearing where you decided to build your camp. The grass was soft and the plants around it didn't grew dense enough for creatures or the like to hide in there and you could look quite far. So ideal conditions for you all to rest there.

But still, you couldn't be careful enough so it was your job to put the motion detectors around the camp. You were struggling to install one of them at a tree because the branch was a little too high up when you heard someone behind you say, “Here, let me help you.”

You turned around and to your surprise it was Loki who stood right behind you and was now stretching out his arms to install the little chip above your heads. He was so close that you could feel his body heat and smell his individual scent. When he was done he looked back down at you and frowned. “What? Don't look at me like that. If you mess up we all could be in danger. Do you really think I'd just let you risk my life like that? Amateur.” He shook his head, took some of the detectors from you and walked away to help you install them.

Something was really strange about Loki today. Despite his comments he was treating you almost like a human. You didn't know what it was that made Loki change his ways with you (maybe Thor had talked to him before your mission?) but you certainly weren't complaining. You actually really like it and felt almost flattered by his attention.

Later you were all sitting together in a circle with your food spread out in the middle for everyone to reach. You sat between Sif and Thor, who shielded you from Loki's glares. You were all eating together in silence, enjoying the nature around you. When the sun had completely disappeared from the sky it was so dark that you almost couldn't see your own hand before your eyes but nobody wanted to make a fire. Its heat would be too much. But how should you see? If you couldn't see you all there defenseless. When suddenly something magical happened. You saw it first and touched Thor's upper arm to get his attention.

“Look!” you said and pointed to the edge of the clearing.

“Wow,” said Sif when she spotted it as well. On of the flowers was slowly opening its petals to reveal a glowing orange color. A lot of other flowers did the same and within moments the whole forest had lit up in all these beautiful colors.

“This is beautiful,” you whispered with a big smile on your face as you watched the fireflies buzzing all around your little group.

“And how are we supposed to find a glowing flower within hundreds of glowing flowers?” asked Loki pretentious.

“Why are you always so pessimistic, Loki?” you shot back. “Can't you just enjoy something for the beauty of it for once?”

The god of mischief stared at you for quite some time before smiling at you with a smug expression on his face. “Looks like I can not.”

You shook your head in disbelieve and continued to look at him skeptically. As much as he tried to act like the beauty of the nature that surrounded you didn't impress him, his face was telling a whole other story as he was looking at fireflies in the air.

You had never noticed it before but now that you were looking at him – the real him, not the passive aggressive one he always showed you – you had to admit to yourself that he was kind of beautiful. His expression relaxed and his features illuminated by the alien light. His eyes, normally blue, looked bright green in this strange glow. He wasn't just a handsome young prince anymore.

Quickly you looked away, your cheeks flushing pink. You couldn't think about him like that. He hated you. It would be inappropriate of you to think of him any other way than as your bully.

After you had eaten and drunk enough you decided it was time to sleep. Volstagg was supposed to guard your camp first – just to be safe. You choose a place close to the edge of the clearing where you laid down and slowly fell asleep. The last thing you saw before your eyelids fell shut were the purple glowing petals of a beautiful flower.

***

Loki's POV

He woke up from an uncomfortable feeling in his abdomen. Loki might've been a god but even a god needed to pee.

He sat up and scanned his surroundings with his eyes. The flowers were still glowing and the fireflies there dancing through the warm air. His team mates were all fast asleep, including Volstagg who was supposed to be on look out.

“What an idiot,” Loki mumbled to himself as he stood up and walked past him. He walked over to disappear between the trees when he almost fell over a body lying in the grass. He looked down and discovered that it was you. You were lying on your side with your legs pulled up to your chest.

Loki crouched down to take a better look. You looked so peaceful in your sleep. You face was completely relaxed and the corner of your lips moved upwards to form a small smile. You must've been dreaming something nice. Loki caught himself thinking how much he wanted to touch you. Just gently ran a finger over your cheek or move a strand of hair out of your face. Be he shook his head and dismissed the thought. What a silly thing to think.

He got up again and walked around you, careful to not disturb your sleep and quickly deactivated the motion detectors before walking away from the others. Because he didn't want to wake anybody up (not even Volstagg) he decided to tend to his business far off from your camp. He had to walk for quite some time and his thoughts were always on you.

There was something about you that he just didn't understand. It wasn't there from the beginning but shortly after meeting you he started to feel weird around you. For some reason every time you were around or even when your name was only mentioned his body started to feel strange. His heart beat quickened, his body felt hot and his blood was boiling. When you walked past him he had to fight back the urge to run after you, to reach out his hand to grab you. When he was close to you he wanted to tangle his fingers in your hair...it was weird. And Loki did not like it.

At the beginning he thought what he felt was anger. He didn't like you. Why? No idea. So he started to play tricks on you and initially it worked. Whenever your eyes would look at him in shock or anger he felt accomplished. He felt like your whole focus was him and him alone and he enjoyed your attention. But soon after it just got worse. He didn't like that you were making him feel this way so he wanted to get rid of you however possible. He even put you in danger at multiple occasions but in the end he never pulled through with his dangerous plans. The thought of losing you and never seeing you again displeased him even more than having you around all the time, so he decided to just try to annoy you away. And at first he thought he had succeeded. But then Sif had asked you to join their mission and now Loki didn't know what to think anymore. He hated you, but he wanted to be close to you. He thought you were annoying, but he wanted to be always on your mind. He didn't like you, but he hated it whenever Fendral got flirty with you.

Loki was quickly done with his business and he turned around to go back to the camp when he heard something. It was like a soft laugh. Maybe they weren't as alone as they had previously thought?

Carefully he sneaked towards the sound and to his surprise found a lake with a soft sand shore. The lake was beautiful. Even the water was slightly glowing. Again he heard this laugh this time louder than before and turned his head in the direction from where it came. He couldn't believe his eyes. There were you! Sitting on a big rock, combing through your hair with your beautiful fingers. Your sinful lips were smiling at him invitingly, your (e/c) eyes watching him playfully. Your arms rose above your head and you curved your bare body seductively.

Loki wade his way over to you utterly confused. “(y/n) what...?

But you put a finger over your mouth, showing Loki that he should be silent. You slowly put your arms around his neck, pulling him closer. His hands quickly found your hips and rested there like they had always meant to be there. Without further ado you crashed your sweet soft lips to his. Loki melted into the kiss, quickly deepening it. He was enchanted. Mesmerized by your soft skin beneath his fingers. His heat was beating faster and his hands were gripping your body tighter. Loki was so bewitched by your body, smell and kiss that he didn't see the inconsistencies that should've proven to him that this wasn't the real you.

He was so fascinated by your beauty that he didn't see the sharp fangs in your mouth. He didn't see the bluish-green glow of your skin or the most obvious thing: that from your mid thigh downwards you didn't have legs but instead a big tail. A fishtail.

***

(Y/N)'s POV

You woke up because of Volstagg's loud snore. Irritated from the loud sound you looked around. You relaxed quickly after realizing that it was just Volstagg and you were about to go back to sleep again when you noticed that someone from your group was missing. Loki.

“Guys?” you asked and stood up but nobody moved. You walked over to the person closest to you and started shaking them.

“Fendral!” you said. “Wake up! Loki is gone.”

The blond man stirred and slowly woke up. “What? (y/n)?”

“Loki isn't here. Do you know where he is?”

“No?” Fendral sat up. “Where is he?”

“That's what I'm asking you!” you said with an eye roll.

“Where is Volstagg?”

At the mention of his name Volstagg flinched and woke up. “Huh?”

“Volstagg!” Fendral said accusingly. “Why are you asleep? Loki is gone. Did you see him?”

“What? No I didn't,” he said and walked over to the place where Loki had been sleeping.”Where did he go?”

“We wouldn't ask you if we knew!” you replied.

“What is going on?” asked Thor, who had just woken up. Sif and Hogun started to rub their eyes as well.

“Loki is gone,” answered Fendral with a sigh.

“What? Why didn't the motion detectors go off?” asked Thor.

“He turned them off,” said Hogun waving one of them in his hand.

“Great,” said Sif sarcastically. “Do we have to search for him now as well?”

“He can't be that far off,” said Thor and got up to his feet. “We should go search for him and if we're lucky we still get a little bit of sleep before we have to move again.” The whole group groaned but they listened to their leader and started searching for Loki.

You decided to split up to find him more quickly. You were sneaking through the trees and plants, your hand on the handle off your sword that was resting against your hip. “Loki?” you screamed and you heard the others echoing your calls in the distance. “Loki!”

You came to a lake and the hairs at the back of your neck stood up. This had to be one of the lakes Heimdall had warned you about. The lakes inhabited by loreley. And indeed, you saw their heads with their big pointy ears sticking out from the water. It looked like they were...waiting? Watching in anticipation.

Your eyes followed their gaze and to your horror you saw...Loki! Lying and rolling around in the water with one of those creatures.

“GUYS!” you screamed for the others. You heard a bunch of steps running towards you but you couldn't take your eyes off of Loki and the mermaid. She looked so familiar....

“(y/n), did you find him?” Thor called when the others arrived and stood next to you. They saw the scene as well.

“Wow,” said Fendral and squinted his eyes to take a better look. “Is that...”

“Me?” you asked in shock. Yes, it was! The mermaid looked exactly like you with her (h/c) colored hair. She was lying on top of Loki who had captured her in his embrace, his lips always moving against hers.

But despite her similarities to you she was still very obvious a mermaid. Her upper body up until her mid-thigh looked like a normal female body, except for the green scales that would cover some parts of her skin, like her arms or her stomach, her cheeks. In that moment Loki let out a deep groan, the mermaid pressing her nude breasts closer to his chest, slipping a hand under his drenched shirt and pulling it up. Loki's hands were slowly moving down her body until they found her butt.

“Okay that's it!” said Thor and spoke your own thoughts out loud. “Sif, Hogun, you two need to help me get that creature off my brother!”

“But Thor, look!” said Sif and pointed to the lake where the others were still slowly moving closer. “If we enter the water they are gonna pull us down as well!”

“What do you suggest we do then?” asked Thor upset. “Just let them drown him?”

“You know what I always say,” said Fendral and stepped forward. “Just do it.”

Then he ran towards Loki, followed by Volstagg and Hogun. Thor ran after them as well and Sif after a moment of hesitation. But you couldn't move. Sif's words didn't stop circling inside your head. _They are capable of telepathy and can see your deepest darkest desires._

Loki hated you. Why would a mermaid take your form to seduce him?

You watched Loki cling to the mermaid on his chest, gripping to her like it was to safe his life, although the exact opposite was the reality.

“How in Helheim is he so strong?” said Fendral as he tried to pull one of Loki's arms away from her. Thor almost pulled the creature off Loki but in that moment she quickly turned around hissed at him and scratched with her long sharp fingernails across his cheek, making him bleed.

Your eyes darted to the other mermaids in the lake. They had come dangerously close. One of them was almost out of the water reaching out her hand to drag Sif into the depths of the lake by her ankle. Within seconds you drew your sword, jumped over to Sif and cut the mermaids hand off before she could drag her in. The creatures screamed in pain.

“Thank you,” said Sif and you nodded in acknowledgment. Sif turned away from Loki and the others and together you started to fight off the other mermaids. The water that was licking at your legs was cold and you shivered but the adrenaline of the fight took over and you moved smoothly without any disturbances.

“We got it!” screamed Fendral triumphantly. Thor quickly summoned Mjolnir and swung it down on the mermaids head, killing her instantly. You smiled looking at Loki but against all of your hopes he still wasn't free from the mermaids curse. He let out a scream of agony so full of pain that it ripped your heart apart.

“Brother, she wasn't real. That was a spirit!” said Thor and tried to pull Loki out of his trance but to no avail. Loki started to attack his older brother with his summoned spear.

“You killed her! You killed her!” he screamed over and over again. Thor mostly blocked his hits. He didn't want to hurt Loki but you saw that that would become his downfall. Sif and the warrior Three were fighting off the mermaids.

“Thor, use Mjolnir!” called Sif but Thor shook his head.

“I can't! I could hurt him!”

Suddenly you had an idea. Maybe if Loki saw that you were still alive it would break the curse and he would stop attacking Thor! You ran over to the two brother and slipped between them, standing protectively in front of Thor.

“Loki, I'm here!” you said soothingly. You let your sword fall to the ground and raised your hands in an attempt to calm him down. “Look, I'm fine. I'm alive. Nobody hurt me.” But Loki didn't recognize you. No, now he started attacking you! You and Thor quickly jumped out of his way.

“Loki! Snap out of it!” you begged him but he didn't hear you. He didn't know it was you talking to him. What could you do? What was left?

Another idea formed in your head. It was stupid and there was absolutely no reason for it to work but you were desperate and in this moment you had no other plan. So instead of running from him you stepped towards him. You saw him smiling. It was one of these arrogant smiles that you knew far too well by now. But unlike other times, when you would look away or roll your eyes at this simile, this time you put your arms around his neck and pulled him down to your level, pressing your lips on his smile.

At first he didn't move. He was in shock and let his spear fall in the sand. You didn't just let go. You couldn't be  _sure_ that he wouldn't attack you anymore. But then slowly he started to kiss back. It wasn't a passionate or wild kiss like he had shared with the mermaid. This one was sweet and innocent. Almost asking _Is this okay? Do you want this?_

Loki laid a hand on your cheek, carefully holding your face close to his own, while the other was playing with your hair. His touch so delicate like the wing of a butterfly.

Meanwhile your heart beat was going crazy and your tummy was tingling. Your head was going red from lack of oxygen but you didn't want to stop.

Finally you pulled away. Both of you were breathing heavily but Loki looked kind of confused in addition to that. He was blinking quickly, like he just woke up from a dream. When he saw how close you two were he quickly let go of you and jumped back. “What did just happen?” he asked looking back and forth between you and the others.

Lady Sif and the others had come out victorious of their fight against the mermaids. Having killed most of them and the others were back hiding in the depths off the lake.

“Brother,” said Thor with a smile and patted Loki on the shoulder. “That's a long story and once I told you all of it I promise I will never let you forget it.”

***

(Y/N)'s POV

You were all walking back to your camp. Loki walking a little behind. Since Thor had explained to him what had happened he didn't say a single word, rather unusual for Loki. He kept his eyes on the ground making sure to look nobody in the eyes, especially not you. His distance was almost disappointing to you. Obviously you didn't think he would suddenly change his whole behavior towards you but, as much as you didn't like to admit it, you had enjoyed your kiss. Hell, it was probably the best kiss you ever had in your life! Despite the circumstances. And you wanted to do it again.

But now was surely not the time to thing about those things. You still had to complete your mission. It was already dawn when you were back at your camp and most flowers had stopped glowing. What a shame, you thought to yourself. You really liked the way they looked.

Thor told everybody to pack up their stuff and you walked over to the place where you had slept last night when something caught your attention. The purple flower!

“Thor?” you called and the god of thunder strolled over to you.

“Yes?”

“What exactly did you say the flower looks like?”

“Purple petals, blue spots and dark red...” his sentence left unfinished when he looked at the flower you were pointing at. Exactly the flower he was describing.

“Are you kidding me?” screamed Sif and walked over to you two.” It was here right in front of our noses the whole time?”

“Does it matter?” asked Volstagg. “That means we can go home now!”

All of you agreed. Thor took Mjolnir and quickly destroyed the plant with it so that nobody would ever be able to harvest it.

“That's it?” you asked unsatisfied. “Seven warriors and all this drama just for you hitting it with your hammer and everything is solved?”

Thor shrugged. “I guess?”

You groaned but didn't complain any further. All you wanted to do was go back home and make some new weapons. The group was almost done with packing when you saw sitting Loki far away from all the others, drawing pattern in the grass with his fingers. You walked over to him and sat down next to him in the grass. His body immediately stiffened.

“Loki, I won't bite you,” you told him softly and laid your hand on of his, stopping him from drawing and making him look at you.

“I know,” he said. “I'm just...It's just...” He sighed. “I'm sorry.”

You nodded, accepting his apology. “It's alright. That could've happened to any of us.”

“I'm not just sorry that you had to fight those mermaids,” he admitted. “I'm sorry that you had to...you know. Kiss me.”

You shrugged. “I didn't  _have_ to kiss you. I could have also just let Thor kill you.” Both of you laughed.

“I guess, I should thank you then,” he said smiling at you. For the first time you looked into his eyes and you didn't see arrogance or hatred. When he looked at you his eyes were full of softness and admiration. “So, thank you.”

“You're welcome,” you said grinning. Loki looked down again slowly interweaving his fingers with yours. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?” you asked him hopefully.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I think...I think, I might not actually hate you.”

You smiled brightly and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. “I don't hate you either,” you whispered in his ear.

He returned your smile.

“I'm glad,” he said back before kissing you once again.

 


End file.
